The author of books of poetry, fiction, essays and plays, Samuel Hazo is the founder and director of the International Poetry Forum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is also McAnulty Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at Duquesne University, where he taught for forty-three years. From 1950 until 1957 he served in the United States Marine Corps, completing his tour as a captain. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame, a Master of Arts degree from Duquesne University and his doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh. Some of his previous books are The Holy Surprise of Right Now and As They Sail (Poetry), Stills (Fiction), Feather, Mano A Mano and Watching Fire, Watching Rain (Drama), Spying For God (Essays) and The Pittsburgh That Stays Within You (Memoir). His translations include Denis de Rougemont’s The Growl of Deeper Waters, Nadia Tueni’s Lebanon: Twenty Poems For One Love and Adonis’ The Pages of Day And Night. His recent book of poems, Just Once, received the Maurice English Poetry Award in 2003. A new collection of poems entitled A Flight To Elsewhere was published in 2005, as was a new prose collection entitled The Power of Less: Essays on Poetry And Public Speech. His books published prior to 2010 were The Song of the Horse: A Selection of Poems, 1958-2008 and This Part of the World, a novel. Published in 2010 and 2011 were Like a Man Gone Mad: Poems in a New Century and The Stroke of a Pen, a collection of essays. Forthcoming in 2012 will be a novel entitled The Time Remaining. He has received twelve honorary doctorates. He was most recently honored with the Griffin Award for Creative Writing from the University of Notre Dame, his alma mater. A National Book Award Finalist, he was chosen the first State Poet of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by Governor Robert Casey in 1993, and he served until 2003.

Education

B.A. (Magna Cum Laude), University of Notre Dame
M.A. Duquesne University
Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh

Professional Experience

Shady Side Academy, Instructor, 1953-1955
Duquesne University, Professor of English, 1955-1998
Duquesne University, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, 1961-1966
International Poetry Forum, President and Director, 1966-Present
University of Detroit, Distinguished Visiting Professor, 1968
International Poetry Forum, Editor of Byblos Editions, 1976-7986
National Public Radio, Commentator for “Performance Today,” 1987-1988
National Public Radio, Narrator for “One Poem at a Time,” 1993-1996
Pennsylvania’s First State Poet, 1993-2003

Military Experience

United States Marine Corps, Captain, 1950-1958

Books

Discovery and Other Poems, Sheed and Ward, 1958The Quiet Wars, Sheed and Ward, 1962 (Poetry)Hart Crane: An Introduction and Interpretation, Barnes and Noble, 1963 (later reprinted by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston)Listen with the Eye, with photographer James P. Blair, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1964 (Poetry)My Sons in God, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1965 (Poetry)Blood Rights, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1968 (Poetry)The Blood of Adonis, translations of the poetry of Ali Ahmed Said (Adonis), University of Pittsburgh Press, 1971Twelve Poems, with color intaglios by George Nama, Byblos Press, 1972Seascript: A Mediterranean Logbook, Byblos Press, 1972 (Fiction)Once for the Last Bandit, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972 (National Book Award Finalist in Poetry)Quartered, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1974 (Poetry)Inscripts, University of Ohio Press, 1975 (Fiction)The Growls of Deeper Waters, Translations of the essays of Denis de Rougemont, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1975The Very Fall of the Sun, Popular Library, 1977 (Book option from The Hudson Review, 1976; Film option re Eli Wallach. 1976-1976)Smithereened Apart, University of Ohio Press, 1977 (Updating of Hart Crane: An Introduction and Interpretation)An America Made in Paris, Byblos Press, 1978 (Poetry)To Paris, New Directions, 1981 (poetry)Transformations of the Lover, Further translations of Adonis, (Byblos Press, 1982: reprinted by University of Ohio Press, 1983)The Wanton Summer Air, North Point 1982 (Fiction)Thank a Bored Angel, New Directions, 1983 (Poetry)The Feast of Icarus: Lyrical Essays, Stuart-Wright, 1984The Pittsburgh That Starts Within You, Byblos Press, 1986The Color of Reluctance, Dooryard Press, 1986 (Poetry)Nightwords, Sheep Meadow Press, 1987 (Poetry)Silence Spoken Here, Marlboro Press, 1988 (Poetry)Stills, Antheneum, 1989 (Reprinted by Syracuse University Press – Fiction)The Rest is Prose, Duquesne University Press, 1989 (Esays)Lebanon: Twenty Poems for One Love, translations of Nada Tueni, Byblos Press, 1990Picks: 1966-1991, Byblos Press, 1991 (Poetry)The Pittsburgh That Stays Within You, Byblos Press, 1992 (An expansion of the memoir that appeared in 1986)The Past Won’t Stay Behind You, University of Arkansas Press, 1993 (Poetry)The Pages of Day and Night, Further translations of Adonis, Marlboro Press, 1995 (reprinted by Northwestern University Press)The Holy Surprise of Right Now, University of Arkansas Press, 1996 (A selected collection of poems from 1959-1995)Latching the Fist, Byblos Press, 1996 (A poetry chapbook)The Pittsburgh That Stays Within You, Byblos Press, 1998 (Third and expanded edition of the original 1986 and 1992 versions) Spying for God, Byblos Press, 1999As They Sail, University of Arkansas Press, 1999 (Poetry)Just Once, Autumn House Press, 2002 (New and Previous Poems) recipient of the Maurice English Poetry Prize, 2003Jots Before Sleep, Byblos Press, 2004The Pittsburgh That Stays Within You, Local History Company, 2004 (Fourth and expanded edition of the previous three versions)A Flight to Elsewhere, Autumn House Press, 2005 (Poetry)The Power of Less: Poetry and Public Speech, Marquette University Press, 2005 (Essays)The Song of the Horse, Autumn House Press, 2008 (Poetry)Like a Man Gone Mad: Poems in a New Century, Syracuse University Press, 2010The Stroke of a Pen, University of Notre Dame Press, 2011The Time Remaining, Syracuse University Press, 2012Like a Man Gone Mad, Syracuse University Press, 2014And the Time Is, Syracuse University Press, 2014Sexes: The Marriage Dialogues, Northwestern University Press, 2014They Rule the World, Syracuse University Press, 2016 (Poetry)Outspokenly Yours, World Association Press, 2017 (Prose)The Pittsburgh That Stays Within You (Memoir updated), 2017The World Within the Word, Maritain and the Poet, Franciscan University Press, 2018

Plays

Until I’m Not Here Anymore, Performed at the Fulton Theater, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, September 1-4, 1992 and subsequently filmed and broadcast on PBSSolos, Performed at Carnegie Lecture Hall, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, December 2-4, 1994Feather, Performed at Carnegie Lecture Hall and other venues, 1996Mano A Mano, A flamenco drama written for the Carlota Santana Spanish Dance Company and performed at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, in March of 2001 and subsequently a the Joyce Theater in Manhattan for eight performances from June 19-24, 2001Watching Fire, Watching Rain, Performed at the Katz Theater (JTop), August 31 to September 14, 2006Tell It To The Marines, Performed at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, 2015

Radio

Performance Today, National Public Radio, Washington D.C., 1989-1990The International Poetry Forum of the Air, WQED, 1992One Poem at a Time, WDUQ (National distribution), 1992-1993 One Poem at a Time, WDUQ (National distribution), 1996

Publications

Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year, Poetry and non-fiction surveys (1970-1973)Mundus Artium, Guest Editor, 1977America (USIF), Contributing editor for the poetry sections in the Russian and Polish editions.Poetry’s Time, Poetry’s Place, Editor and Contributor, 1996

Poems published in The American Scholar, The Antioch Review, The Atlantic Monthly, The Barat Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, The Bennington Review, Choice, Commonweal, The Critic, Crosscurrents, The Dickinson Review, The Georgia Review, Harper’s, The Hawaii Pacific Review, The Hudson Review, Image, The Kenyon Review, The Malahat Review, The Mediterranean Review, Mid-America Poetry Review, The Minnesota Review, The Mississippi Review, Mundus Artium, The Nation, New Directions Annual, New Letters, New World Writing, The New York Times, North American Review, Notre Dame Magazine, Notre Dame Review, The Ontario Review, Perspective, Poetry Northwest, Salmagundi, The Saturday Review, Stand, Tar River Poetry, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Water*Stone, The Yale Review and other journals and anthologies.

Essays/Reviews published in The American Scholar, Commonweal, The Hudson Review, The Mississippi Review, Mundus Artium, The New York Times, Notre Dame Magazine, Pittsburgh Press and Post-Gazette, Poets and Writers, Renascence and The Sewanee Review.

Film

The Day the Clocks Struck Nil, narrated and scripted by Hazo with an original musical score by his son, Samuel Robert, and shown at National Symposium on the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Speeches

Strike Down the Band, Israel and Palestine, Poets and Poetry, United States Foreign Policy, The Office of Citizen, Fear of Feelings, The Power of Less – All published in Vital Speeches.

Distinctions

Pro Helvetia Foundation grant to meet with leading writers, critics and publishers in Switzerland, 1971
Jury Member, Neustadt International Award, University of Oklahoma (Francis Ponge was the awardee)
Six citations from Duquesne University administration, alumni, faculty for teaching, scholarship and writing
Poetry has been translated in Spanish, French, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Arabic, Norwegian, Persian, and Bulgarian
National Book Award nomination for Once for the Last Bandit, 1973
Phi Beta Kappa Honorary Membership, 1976
Pittsburgh “Man of the Year in the Arts,” 1977 and 1984
Governor of Pennsylvania Award, The Hazlett Award for Excellence in Literature, 1986
The Forbes Medal from the Fort Pitt Museum for Outstanding Cultural
Contributions to Western Pennsylvania, 1987
The Elizabeth Kray Award for Outstanding Service to Poetry from the Creative
Writing Program of New York University, 1993
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts Cultural Award, 1995
Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Pittsburgh, 2003
Maurice English Award for Poetry, 2003
The Griffin Award for Creative Writing, University of Notre Dame, 2004

Department of State lecturer in the United States American Specialist Program at the University of Amman in Jordan, the American University in Beirut, Lebanon, the Universities of Cairo and Ein Shams in Egypt, and the Universities of Athens and Salonika in Greece United States Department of State representative during Literature Week on the island of Jamaica, lecturing at the University of the West Indies.
Kilkenny Arts Festival, Ireland, 1978
Stratford-on-Avon Poetry Festival, Great Britain, 1980
Memorial Celebration for Archibald MacLeish, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
United Nations (International PEN), New York, New York
Ceremony honoring Pennsylvania Medal of Honor recipients, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Ceremony honoring Judge Marilyn Patel, Chief Justice of the Federal court of Northern California, San Francisco, California